Research update, commercial products and industry outreach

We everyone’s had a great start to 2018. While we had a bit of a slow down over the Christmas / New Year period the year has started off at a frantic pace with exciting initiatives in a number of areas.

Research Update

It’s been 5 months since we filed our most recent patent on our printed micro planar supercapacitors, which we’ve affectionately named MICRENs, since the full name is a bit of a mouthful. Since then we’ve focused heavily on developing the partnerships that we will need to integrate this technology into real-world applications. The size of our MICRENs, the material theey’re made of the and cost of producing them means they wil be particularly well-suited to medical technlogies and wearable electronics. We’ve been engaging with a number of companies to learn about their requirements and devise ways of tailoring our technologies and optimising them for use in specific applications. This is really ewxciting work and, all going to plan will lay out a very clear path to market for MICRENs in groundbreaking new applications.

On our other printed supercapacitor technology, our ORIGAMI Caps, we are working toward developing a prototype device for use in Internet of Things applications. We have been working with industry players to understand those requirements and we’re aiming to have a product that we can test in the next month or so. Of course, our discussions with all of these potential partners are commercially sensitive at this stage so we can’t provide too much information, but we look forward to positive announcements on these initiatives in coming months.

Water Treatment Work

Work with Clean TeQ and Monash in our CRC-P program continues apace as we work toward demonstrating that we have a product that will deliver enormous leverage in our target markets. All focus at this point is on upscaled manufacturing, ensuring that we can make our membranes and graphene oxide (GO) sand products at industrial scales. This is often the most challenging stage of commercialising a technology and we’ve been faced with a number of challenges that we’re proud to say the team has overcome.

The next major milestone that we’re aiming for is triggering the formation of our joint venture with Clean TeQ when our path to market (and revenues) for this technology will become much clearer.

Australian Graphene Industry Association

In December 2017, Ionic’s Managing Director, Simon Savage, joined the inaugural board of directors for the Australian Graphene Industry Association (AGIA). AGIA was founded as a not-for-profit industry association established with the purpose of advancing the graphene industry in Australia and public knowledge about graphene to ensure that, as a nation, Australia takes a global leadership position in the realisation of the commercial opportunities associated with graphene and the standards that are applied to its use.

AGIA will pursue a range of outcomes including:
• Providing a co-ordinated voice for the companies and research organisations;
• Providing a way for the public to understand the benefits of graphene;
• Providing reports and analyses to government detailing opportunities for economic development;
• Providing a platform for STEM graduates to rapidly identify jobs in the graphene industry;
• Promoting the industry of manufacturing graphene-related materials in Australia;
• Providing leadership and advocacy to government on health and safety;
• Coordinating and developing contributions to standards and regulations;
• Curating the most up to date content that references graphene for the benefit of members and the broader community;
• Running an annual international conference that attracts business and research leaders; and
• Facilitating relationships between various stakeholders engaged in the graphene industry both within Australia and overseas, including bilateral and multilateral meetings and conferences.
We look forward to a strong relationship with AGIA, its members and all stakeholders in the graphene industry in Australia.